TRP: Larkin and Roddy (Bloodstain)
October 15, 2018 Muse: at 1:38 PM The Sugar Glider, mid-day. Roddy is scrubbing at the bloodstain left on deck You know, right about now Roddy was really missing Amari. She was good at this cleaning thing. Roddy- wasn't. He was fairly sure that this spot had only gotten bigger under his attempts to clean up. This adventuring thing was turning to be quite the, well, adventure. Who knew that cleaning blood off of things would end up being part of a daily routine? Jen: at 1:46 PM This morning when Larkin had gotten up, the tortle kid had been scrubbing away at the blood stains Haeth had left after they'd pinned him to the deck. Now it was past midday and he was still at it. She kind of admired his determination but honestly, he wasn't making a very good job of it. Being interrupted by Sugar earlier today had been briefly irritating but with that resolved now and a good deal of the sweet wine down her throat, Larkin found herself in a pretty fucking good mood again. She wandered over to where Rodger was muttering at the planks and leaned against the main mast, watching. "Pretty stubborn stuff, huh?" Muse: at 1:48 PM Roddy was intent on his task- so intent that when suddenly Larkin spoke to him he started. The scrubby thing he'd found went flying, and his bucket got knocked over. Drenching the place in seawater. "Well hello to you too," he snapped irritably. "Now look what you made me do, this is a mess." Jen: at 1:54 PM Larkin chuckled a bit when Rodger jumped - she liked it when people did that - but stopped short. "Hey, not my fault you're so clumsy." Muse: at 1:56 PM "I'm not clumsy, I'm big," Roddy defended, sticking his nose in the air. Jen: at 2:01 PM "You're kind of both." Larkin grinned at him but put down her bottle to pick up the bucket. Muse: at 2:02 PM "Hey what are you doing? I need that," Roddy said, scrambling to his feet. Jen: at 2:05 PM "Woah there, calm down." Clumsy as he was, the tortle was still over a head taller than her and she hadn't expected him to get that emotional about a bucket. Larkin moved back a step and tossed him the bucket. "I was about to help you but if you don't want that, fine. Got better stuff to do anyway." Muse: at 2:06 PM Wait. Roddy fumbled with the bucket, failing to catch it as it clattered to the deck. "You wanna help?" he asked, crouching down to grab it. "I thought you were just gonna- I dunno- do something mean." Jen: at 2:10 PM Huh? Well, Larkin guessed she wasn't exactly the little miss sunshine of this group but she couldn't remember being actually mean to Rodger before. Somehow, that stung. She didn't mind being called names but then, she wanted to have earned it at least. "Why's that?" Muse: at 2:13 PM Roddy started to say something and then paused. Huh why had he expected that? ...And did Roddy feel like he could tell him? (Or was it a her? Humanoids were hard to tell.) "Well- I guess the thought process was 'why wouldn't you'?" he hazarded, scratching at his head. "I mean with you and Goro that seems to be the general approach to things." Jen: at 2:18 PM "Yeah, well..." Larkin started a defense against that but had to admit, the kid was kind of right. "Uhm. Okay, but I wasn't going to be mean to you." Muse: at 2:18 PM "So is that an in general or a just this instant sort of deal?" Roddy asked. Hey, it was good to get clarification. Jen: at 2:24 PM "Ah..." She shifted a bit, cracking her neck and looking down at the bottle next to her feet. "In... general? I mean-" man, what kind of weird conversation was this turning into? "I mean, I'm not usually mean to gang members. A little teasing, maybe, but not mean, no. Is bad sport, y'know." Muse: at 2:25 PM Hmm. You know, this made sense. Roddy was operating on similar logic when it came to Larkin too. "Aright!" Roddy said, grabbing the bucket and trotting towards the edge of the ship. "Hey you like killing things right? Any good at getting blood of a deck?" Jen: at 2:29 PM Larkin stared after him, mouth open, then burst into laughter. "Shit, probably more than anyone should be." She trailed after him, picking up another bucket on the way to the railing. Muse: at 2:31 PM "Good then, you can help!" Roddy said cheerfully, setting to use a little thing he'd rigged up to fill the buckets up. "Or maybe just take over. I've been working on that for a long time you know." Jen: at 2:36 PM "Hell, no. I'm gonna help you, not do the work for you." She watched him fill his bucket and waited for her turn to haul water up. Looking back at the stains, though, all spread out and barely any lighter, she had another idea. "Hey, you know if there's any ammonia on the ship?" Muse: at 2:37 PM "Amon-i-what now?" Roddy asked, looking about as clueless as he felt. "Uh is it edible? Maybe it's in the kitchen." Jen: at 2:42 PM "Nah, it's not edible." Hell, not at all. The stink of the stuff, however, was tied to Larkin's childhood memories like the feel of her dad's rough tunic and the pressure of his arms when he hugged her. On land, people usually used soap but on ships, her dad had explained the first time Larkin had asked about the stink with a wrinkled up nose, on ships sailors still sometimes used urine to produce ammonia and wash their clothing with. "You use it to clean stuff. It's pretty good for getting blood out, but..." She had no clue where to look for some, if any was on the ship, and didn't feel like rummaging through the hold just for that right now. "but lemons and some salt would do the trick as well." Muse: at 2:47 PM "Oh we got those!" Roddy could remember spotting them when he'd helped Hansel with the cooking. "I know right where they are, c'mon." Yep, exactly like he thought, of course she'd know about getting blood out of things. ...And now Roddy did as well. Before too long he'd turn out to be a real adventurer. Jen: at 2:51 PM Rodger went off faster than someone his size and weight had any right to be and Larkin snatched up her wine bottle and strolled after him. Inside the kitchen, she waited by the door while he began rummaging around in search of the ingredients. Muse: at 2:56 PM Lets see. Carrots, some weird thing Roddy didn't recognize- oh hey a kitten! Roddy picked it up a minute, cuddling it before gently tossing it out the door. "Don't you be eating up our food now Ms. Jinglesmurfz!" Roddy had no idea what the cat's name was. Had no idea if that was even what he called it regularly. He just had too much fun coming up with names off the top of his head to settle down and give them a specific one. "Got the lemons! Salt's right over there," Roddy called, jerking his head towards the bag. His arms were full of the bright yellow fruits- and hey this meant Larkin got to carry the heavy thing. Ha. Jen: at 3:02 PM Larkin wasn't sure whether it was the wine, the great weather or if there was something seriously wrong with her but watching the tortle kid was the funniest things she'd seen in a long time. She briefly bent to stroke the cat's back as it brushed past her, took another swig out of the bottle, then set it down to go pick up a bowl and fill it with salt from the bag. "Okay," she said, putting it down on the table. "Now we gotta get all the juice out of these things and mix it with the salt." She pointed at the lemons, then at the bowl. Muse: at 3:08 PM "I'm gonna need a knife I think," Roddy said, staring at the bright, whole lemons in front of him. "Hey their just over there, do you mind grabbing one?" Jen: at 3:13 PM She walked over to where a large kitchen knife lay on a cutting board and brought it back to him, holding it out handle first. Muse: at 3:15 PM Aaaaaand now Roddy had to figure out how to deal with all the lemons and the knife. "Hey actually lets go-" he wandered back over towards the cutting board, eying the counter. Nah it should be fine. And he dropped them on the counter- and lemons scattered everywhere. Off the counter, onto the floor, some bumping into the wall. "...Okay so, I never really messed with food in the circus," Roddy announced, sticking his finger in the air. Jen: at 3:22 PM "Damn, you are clumsy," Larkin said, watching the bath of a lemon rolling towards her feet. The kitten pounced on one, scooting the thing across the kitchen floor. She bent down and picket the fruit up. Set it on the table, got out a knife and cut it open, then squeezed the juice into the salt bowl. "Just bring 'em over." Muse: at 3:27 PM "Right!" Roddy said, grabbing a couple- and narrowly avoiding the cat's tail- and bringing them over. "And I'm not clumsy," he defended mulishly. "I'm just big. And people always thing that because you're big you're also clumsy." Jen: at 3:30 PM Larkin arched her eyebrows at him, smirking but keeping the thought to herself. "Sure, buddy. If you say so." She picket another lemon out of his hands and emptied it of its juices.(edited) Muse: at 3:39 PM Roddy grumbled to himself a bit, not buying that Larking bought it. Things hit a rhythm for a bit, Roddy'd fetch the lemons, Larkin would drain their juice, and the cat would narrowly avoid being stepped on. It was just about when they'd finished up when Roddy suddenly felt the need to start talking again. "So hey when did you learn this trick?" he asked, gesturing towards Larkin's bowl. Jen: at 3:49 PM "Huh?" Only when Rodger began talking again, Larkin realized how much she had zoned out. Comfortably tipsy, cutting things. This was nice. She put the last of the lemons away and thought about it a moment. "Hm. Not sure, actually. I think one of my uncle's people must've shown me. When I was younger, I often got to be the one cleaning up after he... uhm." She stopped and glanced up at him. Maybe this wasn't the right topic for such a nice day. She shrugged. "Don't remember, actually. Must've picked it up somewhere." Then she picked up the bowl and used the knife to stirr the salt and lemon juice into a kind of paste while carrying it back out onto deck. Muse: at 3:53 PM "Oh so you got in the murder business young then." Larkin may have been attempting to tactfully divert the conversation, but Roddy was plowing right through it. "That makes sense. I hadn't killed anybody till joining the guild. Just a lot of conning." They'd gotten back to the mess on deck, Roddy planted his hands on his hips and surveyed their task. "So what's our next step?" Jen: at 4:56 PM "I'm not in the muder..." Larkin started to say but Rodger just babbled on. Man, that kid was really... a lot. Okay. Let him think what he wanted. Whatever. She bent down and dumped the lemon-salt-paste onto the blood stain and began rubbing it in with the brush. "Get that stuff in there. Everywhere there's blood. Then we just let it sit for a while and rinse it off." October 16, 2018 Muse: Today at 2:24 PM "Aye aye captain!" Roddy said, giving a mock salute before diving into his assigned task. Finally, progress! "You know I'm glad someone finally decided to help, this was really annoying and tiring to do on my own." Jen: Today at 2:32 PM "Yeah, well, you seemed pretty lost with it. Felt kinda compelled to help you out there." Larkin finished rubbing the paste into her side of the stain and stood up, stretching a bit. "Actually, we should have Haeth do it. It's his blood after all." She grinned. Muse: Today at 2:40 PM Roddy sat back on his haunches, pointing at Larkin and grinning hugely. "I like the way you think! Mishka should help us out here. Hey where is he anyway?" Roddy asked, glancing around. No Miskha in sight. "Just figures, he'd leave us to clean up his mess," Roddy grumbled. Jen: Today at 2:45 PM She kept smiling at him. Somehow, scrubbing blood off a deck had turned to be an actually enjoyable affair. "We'll have to leave it to sit anyway," she reminded him. "You can tell the elf to clean off the rest later." Muse: Today at 2:51 PM "Hey that's a good idea! We should do that. Should be more inclined to listen if there's two of us right? 'Specially if one of 'em is you," Roddy rattled off. Jen: Today at 2:59 PM "Aw, come on," Larkin laughed. "You're way more intimidating than I am." She turned and walked a few steps, looking around the area. "Hey, have you seen my bottle?" Muse: Today at 3:09 PM "No, did you leave it in the galley?" Roddy asked, surveying his handiwork. Yep, looks like all the blood had been thoroughly pasted. Hey wait a minute what was that Larkin had said? "Did you just call me intimidating?" he asked, trailing after her. Jen: Today at 3:13 PM "Uh, yeah," she said, absently, while trying to remember where she'd set the wine down. "you're really big. Look like you could snap a fucker in half." By the mast? She wandered over but no luck. Dammit. Muse: Today at 3:17 PM "Huh." Roddy was very aware of his size, but usually when he opened his mouth that intimidation factor went away. But then again, he had scared that half-orc back in the woods into surrendering- what was his name again? Cliff? "Hey I should try to be scary more often then! I have killed people now you know." Jen: Today at 3:24 PM How the hell could someone lose a bottle on a boat? Maybe... oh, of course. Larkin slapped a hand against her forehead and started off back to the kitchen - then stopped to look back at Rodger. He sounded waay to cheery saying that and that meant something considering the company Larkin was usually in. "Well, good for you, but... you know that's not really something to be proud of, right?" Muse: Today at 3:26 PM Roddy stared at Larkin blankly. What point, exactly, was she trying to make...? "Well we end up in a lot of fights and all. I don't like it but better than chickening out and letting one of my teammates get hurt right?" Jen: Today at 3:29 PM "Yeah, true but- well, you sounded pretty fucking happy 'bout it just now." She waved him off, not feeling up for this kind of conversation. "Anyway. Whatever. You do your thing, Roddy."(edited) Muse: Today at 3:39 PM Roddy was slightly offended- but at the same time he couldn't really argue with her about it. "What's wrong with liking to be able to protect my teammates?" he grumbled, more to himself than to Larkin. "Well good luck finding your bottle, I think I'm gonna go- do something else. Practice a song maybe." Jen: Today at 3:47 PM "Yep. Alright." Larkin was already halfway through the kitchen door and didn't bother looking back. She waved at him over her shoulder. Back inside the kitchen it took her a spin around herself to find the bottle sitting on a shelf next to the door. She snatched it up, happy to be reunited. Before leaving again, she paused, considering the pile of lemon peels and the puddles of juice they'd left behind. Someone ought to clean this up. Larkin looked at the bottle in her hand again. Eh, maybe someone else than her. She'd done her part cleaning already. Muse: Today at 3:51 PM END Category:Text Roleplay